Having just yesterday maxed out my Military rank with both the Federation and Empire, I thought I would pass along some lessons learned. I hope this helps and saves some folks the heartache of trial and error and failed assassination missions.
The most popular comodities for Donation Missions are Basic and Agri Medicines, Algae, Fish, Food Cartridges and Non-lethal weapons. Some missions do ask for others, you will just have to see what they are looking for in your area. I use the Elite Trading Tool located here: http://elitetradingtool.co.uk/ Click the "LISTS" tab across the top of the page and the select "I Want to Buy Commodity" to locate the commodities near you.
I hope this helps those of you still gaining rank or who just haven't quite figured out the nuances of the Rank system yet. This was about 3 months in the making. I spent the last 3 weeks trying to get my last three ranks with the Impire buy completing Assassination missions. This weekend I got frusterated at the broken missions and just decided to do the Donation missions and made all three ranks this weekend. I also used this system a month or two ago for the Federation but wanted to do simething different for a while. I am now convinced that this guide is very accurate and should help alot of CMDR's. Fly Safe!
- Trading with a faction (for the specific purpose of increasing rank) is not at all useful. It is entirely too time consuming and tedious. Though you will make credits in the process.
- Taking Assassination Missions is currently a crapshoot (hopefully this will be resolved in 1.3 update) and you are just as likely to lose reputation as earn it. Many of the missions are broken (second stage starts before first stage, then you lose rep for abandoning the mission, BTW, do not abandon the mission, just let the timer run out (puts off the negative rep for a while)), and the missions themselves do not give you enough information about exactly whose reputations you will affect. I have on many occasions taken a kill mission which should increase my rep with an Imperial minor faction, just to turn it in and find out that it did increase my rep with one Imperial minor faction, only to reduce my rep with another Imperial minor faction. And apparenlty losing rep happens much faster than gaining rep. The end result of the above scenario was a loss of faction rep.
- Running Faction Specific Missions seems to be the best and safest bet, though a bit slower. However it all works out in the end when you don't have to regain that reputation after a kill mission error or negative rep gain. Just be sure that you are not taking missions that say "This is considered Illegal". If you get caught, you will lose more rep than you would have gained.
- RECOMMENDED METHOD - I found the absolute quickest, easiest and safest way to earn the rank was to Accept and turn in the DONATION Missions...(Give Food, Give Medicine, Needs Covert Help ((Give Non-lethal Weapons)), etc.) These obviously cost a bit of money, but you are basically buying rank. The sole reward for these missions is increased reputation. I found the most efficient way was to outfit a Lakon type 6 with Food, Medical Supplies and Non-lethal weapons and then just run around from station to station looking for these missions. Be sure to also take any simple one-way delivery missions while you are there (especially if they are in the same system, and make sure they are for a minor faction associated with your chosen major faction).
The most popular comodities for Donation Missions are Basic and Agri Medicines, Algae, Fish, Food Cartridges and Non-lethal weapons. Some missions do ask for others, you will just have to see what they are looking for in your area. I use the Elite Trading Tool located here: http://elitetradingtool.co.uk/ Click the "LISTS" tab across the top of the page and the select "I Want to Buy Commodity" to locate the commodities near you.
I hope this helps those of you still gaining rank or who just haven't quite figured out the nuances of the Rank system yet. This was about 3 months in the making. I spent the last 3 weeks trying to get my last three ranks with the Impire buy completing Assassination missions. This weekend I got frusterated at the broken missions and just decided to do the Donation missions and made all three ranks this weekend. I also used this system a month or two ago for the Federation but wanted to do simething different for a while. I am now convinced that this guide is very accurate and should help alot of CMDR's. Fly Safe!